Pull List Review for October 17, 2007

There were some good comics in today's pull list. 

Even in an era of overlong, write-for-the-trade, never-ending soap opera books, it's possible to get a self-contained story that puts them all to shame.  In Birds of Prey #111, Tony Bedard tells a self-contained story about the Calculator and Oracle finally facing off, and it rocks!  It's funny, it's intense, it's creepy, it's cute, you could enjoy it even if you never read BoP before and yet it moves the overall storyline forward.  If Bedard keeps up this level of quality on a monthly basis, it will not only keep the Birds of Prey going but it will secure it a place as one of DC's best books.  For now, it's definitely the best use for $3 you can get this week.  ***Highly Recommended*** and kudos, Tony. 

UPDATE:  I've been informed that, sadly, Tony's three excellent single-issues were just fill-ins, so ignore what I said about the future prospects for BoP... but I have to say, DC would be wise to lure him to the gig permanently!

Worst of the week:
Justice League of America #14 - McDuffie's usually a good writer, as the animated JLU show proved, but this installment is weak.  For one thing, it seems like something he could have written in a half hour, and it certainly didn't take me long to read it.  $3 for five minutes' reading of the third of four chapters just isn't much bang for your buck.  The book abounds with huge panels containing one word balloon.  There's a two-page spread of the JLA in bondage that seems to exist only for cheesecake exploitation as well as a cheap way to use up two pages.  (Speaking of exploitation: I hate to give DC Comics any more ideas given the amount of degradation in comics over the last few years, but I must say just from a plot perspective that it IS odd that supervillains trying to get Superman's goat wouldn't be raping their captives, especially when that's Dr. Light's thing and he's on the team.  I mean, I'm GLAD we don't see that kind of thing in comic books... but it's one of those Austin Powers-y "Why don't they just shoot him?" things that one wonders about.)  I'm guessing McDuffie had other work to get to and just slammed this out after breakfast.  So little plot takes place in this installment that you could reasonably skip it and use the $3 to rent a three-hour movie instead.  I also have to ask: is Superman really so easily played at this point in his life?  He has been dealing with low-blows from Luthor for a decade or more in his time, and when Luthor is openly taunting him with images of the JLA members captured and beaten, is Superman really so weak and stupid that he can't think up a better response than giving Luthor exactly the reaction he was hoping for?

That said, the book does have some good dialogue.  It's not a total waste or anything.  But compared to the amount of content in other 22-page books this week, it seems a bit light.

Other books on my pull list this week:
Shadowpact #18 - At first I wasn't even buying this series, but after getting the first few issues cheap at a convention I was hooked.  Bill Willingham has a knack for compelling characters.  Unfortunately, it looks like he's left the book and I'm still feeling out his replacement.  Plus, the cover gets dinged a point for using the "chalk outline" convention.

Metamorpho Year One #2  -  I like the character but so far I haven't seen anything I haven't seen before, since I'm familiar with his origin and past adventures.  Hopefully newer readers can appreciate it more than I can.

Death of the New Gods #1 -  Do I need to announce spoilers when the title tells you ALL the New God characters will die? I love Mr. Miracle and Big Barda, so this just seems like Identity Crisis rehashed.  Another of my faves, gone.  I will be skipping the rest of the series.

Countdown #whatever - I really loathe this title.  I actually went to the extreme of canceling it from my pull list two months ago, but at Jimmy Jams the deal is that you commit to buying all the comics that have been ordered for you.  In the case of this weekly comic, that means I'm buying another $36 worth of comics before I can stop.  This series has been really, really bad.  The installments are progressing at a snail's pace, with plots crossing over into other books without telling you which ones you need to read before what (like, be sure to read "Death of New Gods" before this week's Countdown where they tell you Barda is dead, or "Hey, why don't you all go buy Flash #13 - it might be important to next week's plot!").   This is a bad book and unlike 52 I don't care about a single character in it.  I know it's all building to the next big supermajumbo crossover but I suddenly realized it's not worth $156 to watch Jason Todd, Donna Troy, Jimmy Olsen and Pied Piper as they all take a Lemmiwinks inactive adventure with the promise that it will someday lead somewhere.